Defining the Political

The first part of this study is devoted to an attempt to provide a systematic philosophical argument for the political movement from Marx to Kant. Marcuse's aesthetics, Sartre's politics and the contemporary deconstructionist orientation serve as negative initiations to a discussion of the theory and practice of dialectical theory. The difficulties of treating theory as political hinge on the inadequacies of the Marxist formulation. The second half proposes analyses of the New Left of the 60s and the potential birth of a new New Left in the 80s. The practical dimensions of theory and the theoretical dimensions of practice, pose the questions of the origins of the politics. The political defines the conditions of the possibility of politics. The genesis of this structure as defined in studies of Enlightened Despotism, the American Revolution and contemporary international relations. The politics made possible by the political are first of all democratic. Their practice is illustrated first by a comparison of the ethical and the political dimensions of May 1968 and the December 1986 student rebellions in France, and then by the analysis of the implications of the Iran-Contras affair for American politics today. Dick Howard is author of "From Marx to Kant", "The Marxian Legacy" and "Naissance de la Pensee Politique Americaine".